The Tilted Row — Restaurant in Baltimore

I’ve been here about five times to try as much as possible on the menu before writing an honest review. Firstly this is NOT A FIVE STAR LEVEL VENUE. It’s trying to be upscale casual. Upon our first visit to the Tilted Row we were met with a wonderful hostess who is always pleasant. She has excellent fashion taste. We were seated at the bar because we didn’t have reservations but honesty I prefer it to get a real feel of the place and it’s staff. All the non-poc staff were so friendly and welcoming the poc staff just stared at us and went to the other side to talk about us to the other poc staff. The poc staff didn’t even greet us or say hello at our first visit. For our first visit we came straight from my chemo treatment and were not dressed up fancy but casual. I wanted to go out and try something new to make me feel better. The next time we went for brunch we were dressed up for a Sunday brunch and we went to the bar for food and drinks. This time they said “oh you all clean up nicely” would they say this to white people who go to tilted row? The assumptions that we are dirty or not well kept was from your POC staff. Then we were met with the most pretentious employee who whispered when speaking and was extremely arrogant and rolled her eyes several times at us while we sat at the bar. The only person who was extremely great was Julian. Julian was so nice, had great bar conversation, and new their stuff, and they are new to the Tilted Row staff. Everyone else has a pretentious heir that doesn’t serve them or the restaurant well. The brunch was ok, it’s basic with great plate settings. The drinks are always great and made correctly. Our last three times we were met with the same pretentious staff hoping they would be more pleasant but it was a weird unwelcoming vibe from the non-poc staff. I met the owner once who was wonderful and greeted us with a welcoming smile. Like I said the non-poc staff is always really welcoming to us. Last night we went for food and drinks and it’s was subpar. This restaurant cannot get medium well burgers down. It trips them up something bad! They burn your burger to a black crisp and it tastes like burnt grill through and through. The crab cake is just a crab cake not a maryland crab cake. It’s just as bad as Black Swan’s crab cake. It lacks flavor, dry, lackluster especially for the price, the lamb dish and Wednesday’s fish plate is very good. The desserts do not seem “fresh on site baking fresh” but they taste ok. The Mac n cheese is good. It only goes down easy if it’s cheesy and it was cheesy! I recommend every drink on the menu. Brunch is cute, the coffee is not good brand of coffee. I wish the Baltimore restaurants would all stop using the same coffee vendor. Every spot this coffee taste like it’s been sitting next to old grease all night. It’s a cute spot with some chef flaws, but the staff seems very new and a little too pretentious to be smack in the middle of the ghetto with barely any parking. Some of your staff have identity issues when it comes to how to show up for your patrons. That was the last time we will be going. We tried but your staff needs a reality check and the...

Short version: The Tilted Row gave us somewhat mixed feelings, and it's a little hard to strongly recommend them, but I would suggest giving them a try. Their recipes are good and their effort seems genuine, but they miss the mark in some places, and I think their ingredient sourcing is off.

Long version: My fiance and I dined here on a busy summer Friday night. We started off with a few cocktails, which were very enjoyable. We then ordered the corn fritters and shrimp three ways to start. The corn fritters were basically glorified funnel cake with a very small amount of corn in them. The shrimp three ways was a mixed bag. The cevice was excellent, while the shrimp in the kataifi tasted not fresh, and the shrimp in the dip was basically absent, though the dip itself was good. For our main dishes, I ordered the Date Night Steak Night and my fiance ordered the chicken milanese. This is where things get a little dicey. The chicken and accompanying sides were delicious, featuring airy breadcrumbs and a very tender texture. On the other hand, the ribeye steak dish suffered some serious problems. The truffle mashed potatoes and green beans sides were excellent. However, the ribeye had a big problem. The sear/cook on the ribeye was just right, but the meat had a very funny sort of strange taste to it. I've eaten many ribeyes in my day, and have never tasted anything quite so offputting in such a steak. The actual flesh tasted more-or-less normal, but the fat in particular tasted borderline disgusting. It tasted like the smell of a petting zoo, with no exaggeration. I asked the restaurant staff about the pedigree of the beef, and they told me it was sourced from an unknown farm in Australia. I wonder why they would opt for that, when there is so much delicious local beef. Either way, I have to admit that I very sadly was not able to finish eating the ribeye. Try as I might, the flavor was very hard to excuse and almost made me sick. Again, I don't think this is a fault of the cooking process -- the steak was well seasoned and cooked exactly to the temperature I was expecting -- but the actual beef served on this particular night was pretty gross. We rounded out with the bourbon pecan pie, which was super tasty. Overall, I think The Tilted Row has a lot of potential, but I think (in my naive opinion) that it might serve them better to source their ingredients locally, and make sure to taste their food before serving it on a given night. It's difficult for me to recommend The Tilted Row at this time, given that I was strongly disappointed by the fanciest and most expensive item on their menu. I hope to try them again and have a better impression of them in the future. They did so much right, but also messed up in a few...

My partner and I have been here a handful of times in the last three months now. Our first visit was just for drinks, and I was pleasantly surprised by the wine selection. Our second visit was a weeknight, and we shared a shepherd's pie that was amazing. This was in July. We went back a couple of weeks ago, greatly anticipating our next meal, and ended up leaving with a lot of disappointment.

I'm not sure if the menu rotates often, or if it's because of new management/chef, but it was a completely different menu. I was looking forward to all the options for my rather difficult diet, and the last time we were there the menu was amazing. During this visit I asked if about getting the cod without the prosciutto (can't eat pork), and I was told all of the cod wrapped prosciutto is pre-prepped. The only fish item on the menu is wrapped in pork, which is extremely disappointing. I ended up getting the "airline chicken," and my partner got the steak and fries. He asked for medium rare and received an unevenly cooked medium-well steak with fairly unseasoned fries. My chicken was bland and dry, with what tasted like store bought tzatziki sauce and no veggies in sight. We left extremely disappointed, and decided we'd only go back for drinks.

My partner asked for one more try for dinner, so we went on a Thursday for fried chicken night. Fortunately, this was a far better experience. The chicken was seasoned very well, and the portions were extremely generous (if not a bit too much). Dessert was amazing, as well.

The weeknight date night specials seem to be the best option here, and after seeing the previous menu, the current one is uninspired and lacking any real variety. I really hope this restaurant can tweak a couple things, because everything else is great. The ambiance is perfect, music isn't insanely loud, and the service is...